Your spelig is an eyesaw bernard.
gaffiti [sic] can look great - banksy's work would't go for tens of thousands if it didnt.
my view is though, the council would be best set cutting the work off the wall and auctioning it - then holding a neighbourhood mural project with the proceeds. or a block party. Hey, do both!!

bennito , london,

It is a good thing the artwork was cleaned off. Graffiti street / urban art, (what every you want to call it), whether you like it or loath it) exists in the open, and constantly exposed to an ever changing environment, including street cleaners and other graffitists. The building simply has a fresh canvas for the next person or to add something new. The worst thing possible was for the property owners to attempt to "protect it", perhaps they should have placed it behind 4 inch bullet proof perspex, or like similar short sighted entrepreneurial art collectors , take a circular saw and slice out a section of the wall!

Robin, Bristol, England

I was born in Hackney.
Graffiti will not give Hackney its character back.
Decent housing for respectable local families might.
Safe streets for my elderly relatives who still live there might.
Long term and secure manufacturing jobs like the ones my parents did when I was a child might.
Artsie fartsie nonsense from the chattering classes will not.
Good luck to those cleaners for doing an efficient job.

CAM, Essex,

It may be art to someone, but an eyesaw to most, and I do not care where you go in the world, Gaffiti on walls, bring a negative feeling to people, New people to the area will always take a second look.
Buy the artist a canvas, it's cheap than having Goverment cleaning crews paid by tax payers money

bernard michael, delray, FL. U.S.A.

So now graffiti gives character to an area? The next thing youll know they'll get a council grant for their spray cans! Oh well, beats working I suppose.
BG

Bill Glanvill, Horsham, W Sussex